'Reaper': Falling slowly

Ah, "Reaper", why must you limp toward your all but inevitable finish line? Rather than explore last week's interesting shading of Sam's dark side, you gave us an episode of cougar jokes, fly fishing beatdowns, and a supposedly all-powerful, unstoppable evil entity that gets confused by copulation. All in all, a pretty weak week.

All three of the boys faced relationship problems of their own. Sam dealt with the aftermath of Andi dumping him, Sock tried to keep the Kristen fires burning under the nose of her recently returned father, and Ben struggled to overcome his fear of flying in time for his two-month anniversary with Nina. Keeping with that theme, the Devil sent them after Billy, a covetous soul that got hit by a car while thinking about his neighbor's wife. Yikes. I'm starting to think there are approximately eleven souls in "Reaper"'s version of heaven.

Sam set out to prove to Andi that his job doesn't make him inherently evil, and so sought to trick the Devil so Bobby could live his newfound life with his dream girl. Andi's at the point now where anything Sam does reeks of the Devil's influence; even if Sam started recycling more, she'd call that the work of Satan. So Sam tries to send a corpse, not a soul, back to hell. Big mistake, compounded by the fact Morgan tried to tag along and take credit for the capture.

Doing so unleashed "The Ender," which is a cross of The Nothing from "The Neverendning Story" and a wraith from "The Lord of the Rings." It's a creature so terrifying, so singular in its purpose, that not even the Devil can stop him. However, apparently orgasms can. Um, OK. Whole lotta Stacey Q going on in that room, y'all. The horizontal bop fakeout only prolonged Bobby's stay, as Morgan eventually captured him in the Work Bench parking lot soon after. Is it bad that I cheered? Probably.

Sam might not have been successful in saving Bobby, but he just might have salvaged a chance with Andi. She agrees to go with him to Bobby's grave that night, where they both stumble upon Night Watchman Alan. Looks like we're finally getting back to that storyline, and not a minute too soon. Why Sam doesn't spend every waking second looking for him confounds me.

However, why Nina hasn't straight up eaten Ben by this point confuses me more. His 8th-grade collage should have sealed his doom, but this hellish creature whose interests include eating whole cows and setting fire to villages can't get enough of bunny-loving Ben. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Ben fan, but absolutely nothing about this relationship makes a lick of sense. Speaking of relationships that make no sense, another ending this week with Kristen returning to Japan. She might have told Sock about this earlier, which would have spared us four minutes of unfunny fly fishing banter between him and his stepfather.

A few other bits from tonight:

I enjoyed The Devil going all Darth Vader on Sam's Luke, casually tossing objects towards an increasingly hapless adversary. More examples of the Devil's might, please.

I can't believe how badly this show is botching Mr. Oliver's storyline. It's bad enough Sam can only be bothered to look for Alan when he accidentally stumbles into him. But has everyone forgot to investigate the contract than landed Sam in his position in the first place?

Quote of the Week: Nina: "I decorated with human furniture!"

All in all, an off week for the show. A few more of these and people won't miss it too much should this prove to be its last season.Did this episode bore you as much as it did me? Which mystery do you want solved before season/series end more: how Alan escaped, or the nature of Sam's contract?